Joe Biden is being presented by the legacy media as a welcome return to normal. He is celebrated for being a “regular Joe,” and media figures are cheering that the news is “boring again.”
In reality, Biden’s political career — which began almost 50 years ago — is replete with lies, hypocrisy, and political flip-flopping. Here is a breakdown of just a selection of the lies and flip-flops that make up Biden’s career.
1968: Biden earned a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law, ranking 76th in his class of 85. He failed a course after plagiarizing a law review article.
December 18, 1972: Biden’s wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were tragically killed in an automobile accident in Hockessin, Delaware. Beau (aged 3) and Hunter (aged 2) survived with injuries. Despite the investigating official saying that the driver of the tractor-trailer which hit Neilia’s car had not been drinking, Biden claimed on multiple occasions that he was drunk.
- 2001: “It was an errant driver who stopped to drink instead of drive and hit a tractor-trailer, hit my children and my wife and killed them.”
- 2007: “A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly and killed my daughter instantly and hospitalized my two sons.”
- 2019: In a Politico piece titled “How Grief Became Joe Biden’s ‘Superpower,’” the wife of the accused driver, Pamela Hamill, said “The family feels these statements are both hurtful and untrue and we didn’t know where they originated from,” and that Biden “apologized for hurting [her] family in any way,” after CBS reported on Biden’s unsubstantiated claims.
1973
- Biden described the Roe v. Wade verdict as “wrongly decided.” On January 22, 2021, the Biden administration released a statement saying “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe.”
- Speaking to a gay activist, Biden stated, “My gut reaction is that they (homosexuals) are security risks but I must admit I haven’t given this much thought…I’ll be darned!”
1974: Biden says that Roe v. Wade “went too far.”
1976: Voted for the Hyde Amendment, which prevented the use of federal funds for abortion in almost all cases.
1977: Voted against a compromise to allow Medicaid to fund abortions that included exceptions for rape and incest, as well as concerns for the life of the mother.
1981
- Voted to remove “rape and incest” exceptions in abortion law.
- The Foreign Assistance Act of 1981 still contains a “Biden amendment” which was added “to ban American aid from being used in research related to abortions.”
1983: Voted to “prohibit federal workers from using health insurance on abortion services, with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.”
1987
- Biden’s first presidential campaign, declaring his candidacy on June 9, 1987. In September, he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Earlier that year, he had also used passages from a speech by Robert F. Kennedy and a phrase from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address. In 1985, he used a 1976 passage by Hubert Humphrey. During the campaign, he made several false claims about his early life, including that he had earned three degrees in college, that he attended law school on a full scholarship, that he had graduated in the top half of his class, and that he had marched in the civil rights movement. He withdrew from the race on September 23, 1987.
- When he became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he “told aides his goal was to enact legislation that would take a comprehensive approach to reducing crime” as the country battled with an ongoing violent crime epidemic.
1988: After previously approving of his hypothetical nomination, Biden stated his opposition to the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Biden then oversaw the hearings, which resulted in the term “borking,” which means to obstruct a candidate by using tactics of defamation or vilification.
1991: Biden also oversaw Clarence Thomas’ nomination hearings, which now Justice Thomas described as a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you.” “You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. — U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree,” Thomas continued.
1993
- Biden voted for a provision that deemed homosexuality as incompatible with military life, which effectively banned homosexuals from serving in the United States armed forces.
- Biden voted to save the Hyde Amendment.
1994:
- Biden voted to cut off funding for schools which taught the acceptance of homosexuality.
- The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was also known as the Biden Crime Law, and was the largest crime bill in the history of the United States. Biden drafted the Senate version of the legislation in cooperation with the National Association of Police Organizations.
1996: Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
2006: Joe Biden confirmed his position that “marriage is between a man and a woman.”
2007
- Biden said “There are 300,000 babies born deformed every year in this country because of women who are alcoholics while they’re carrying those children to term,” with Politifact reporting that the “National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome states that about 40,000 children are born each year suffering from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.”
- December 31: Biden said “Barack Obama hasn’t passed any [bills],” when Obama had sponsored a bill that later became law.
- December 31: Biden said “John [Edwards] doesn’t have a record in the Senate. John’s only passed four bills. They’re all about post offices,” despite the fact that Sen. Edwards had a central role in enacting other laws, including “Kristen’s Law,” which directed funds to be used to find missing persons.
2012:
- April 1: Biden claimed that “General Motors is the largest corporation in the world again,” even though neither Forbes nor Fortune ranked GM as the world’s largest company at the time.
- May 8: Biden claimed that “When we took office, let me remind you, there was virtually no international pressure on Iran,” while multiple governments and banking institutions were applying pressure to the terror sponsor.
2016:
- April 29: Biden said “In the United States alone we lose more than 3,000 people a day to cancer,” while estimates suggest the actual figure is around half that.
2019:
- May 1: Biden claimed that he “was always labeled as one of the most liberal members of the United States Congress,” which given his record is demonstrably untrue.
- September 3: Biden claimed that he opposed the Iraq War “immediately, the moment it started,” despite supporting the decision at the time.
- September 12: Biden claimed that the Obama administration “didn’t lock people up in cages,” despite famous photos depicting such “cages” were taken in 2014.
2020:
- May 22: During the infamous “you ain’t black” interview, Biden also claimed “The NAACP has endorsed me every time I’ve run.” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson debunked this claim, saying that the NAACP is “a nonpartisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level.”
- July 22: Biden said “We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. [Trump’s] the first one that has.” Given that previous presidents have held slaves, held racist views, or engaged in racist rhetoric, this is obviously false.
- October 15: Biden claimed that “The boilermakers union has endorsed me because I sat down with them and went into great detail with leadership [about] exactly what I would do,” even though he was never endorsed.
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.